Do pistol rounds matter more in CS2?

Danny Hsieh -

With the swap from MR15 to MR12, the community expected pistol round results would play a larger factor in deciding the outcome of a match. We wanted to see how true this was.

To measure how pistol round impact has changed from CS:GO to CS2, we looked at the win-rate of games when one team:

  • wins both pistol rounds
  • wins both pistols and the conversions (the round immediately after pistol)

Here's what we found:

  • 3% win-rate increase when winning both pistols (59% → 62%)
  • 4% win-rate increase when winning both pistols + conversions (70% → 74%)

Pistol rounds matter more in CS2, but not by a drastic amount. Recovering from pistol losses is still similar to CS:GO.

We've got more pistol round insights coming soon. Follow us on Twitter/X to make sure you don't miss out.